Terre des Hommes Libres

Author Comments

The full title for this song, as some of you may have seen on YouTube, is "Sur la terre des hommes libres" (Fr.: In the land of the free). I wrote this four years ago, when I underwent National Service, a year before coming to the UK.

The song started on paper, and when I had returned from National Service, I proceeded to play it on the piano and record it with the only means I had at the time: a cell phone mic. Then it was given a first remake when I had just picked up FL Studio. Then last year, it was given a second remake. Now finally, with a proper mic in my stash, I have decided to give this song a THIRD remake.

The timing couldn't be better for the remake: some of my former schoolmates have been reaped for National Service and are making their way to the camps to which they have been assigned. I wrote this song in contemplation of whatever could happen in those camps: even though they were a very tiny minority, some people were sent to the training camps only to have very scarring experiences, and some were sent there never to return home alive. I realised that these possibilities were real.

By the way: going accent-less for the lyrics, because sometimes NG supports accents and sometimes, it does not.

So awesome! I take French at school, so I spent a whole bunch of time rewinding until I understood the lyrics...then I saw the translation lol. Anyways, beautiful compostion, really catchy, and sweet sounding. Keep it up!

Admittedly, it took me two tries to write proper lyrics for TDHL, considering I took French on the side (outside the school curriculum) -- that's how I'm able to speak it -- and I can't often handle French words like a native speaker can.

Great work on this one!
It's strangely catchy, especially the "da-da-da" sections. I'm talking the rhythm of it, the groove, the melody -- everything! And I like the feel of this; your take with the arrangement. :D

The only "problem" I can find with this is the mix. I feel like it's a bit too "hot," with instruments lurching forward and backwards, possibly due to over-compression? I'm not sure how it came to be but a lot of details lose themselves due to how "punchy" it is. I think the fix for this would to just use less compression. But then again, that is only assuming the problem came out of compression in the first place. This bothered me because I liked all the details and parts in this arrangement, but because of that issue it's kind of hard to hear them in all their, say, "glory." Other than that, the song itself is great! There's a great sense of tranquility at the same time determination and purpose. It's just really nice.

(I apologize if anything I said was inaccurate or whatever. This is my first review here and I'm kind of nervous as to how this works. I hope I made sense. xD)